Campaign Launched to Rename English Town After David Bowie

A David Bowie fan has launched a campaign to have the English town of Aylesbury renamed “Aylesbowie” in the late artist’s honor. The bid comes after David Stopps ran a successful crowdfunding appeal to have a Bowie statue placed in the town. It’s to be unveiled on March 25.

Aylesbury’s Friars venue played to host to several notable moments in Bowie’s history, including his first-ever performance in his Ziggy Stardust character, the BBC reported. “Following the untimely death of David Bowie on 10 January 2016, a groundswell of opinion surfaced in Buckinghamshire, England, to celebrate his art in a permanent way, in recognition of the strong connection he had with music club Friars Aylesbury,” Stopps said on his Change.org petition page.

“Bowie performed the world debuts of two of the most iconic albums of the 20th Century, Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, at Friars Aylesbury in 1971/72. He formed the Spiders from Mars in the tiny Friars dressing room and referenced Aylesbury Market Square in the first line of ‘Five Years.’ … The Bowie statue will give an enormous boost to tourism in the area so please join us in calling for the town to be renamed Aylesbowie.”

He told the BBC: “Since records began there have been 57 variations of the town’s name.” A spokesman for the local authority said: “It's an interesting idea and perhaps on 25 March we could all think ‘Aylesbowie’ – just for one day!"

The life-size statue features Bowie in a number of his personas, including Stardust, and was created by sculptor Andrew Sinclair, who used a mask taken from the subject’s face during the filming of The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1975. Speakers mounted on the installation will play a Bowie track every hour, on the hour.